Planned Parenthood, pfft

Dateline: Tue 29 Jan 2013

Does everyone agree that in a civilized world, we start to wind down at 7 or 7:30 p.m. or so? Take up a good book, or in my case last night, Roku the comedy movie "Baby Mama," starring Tina Fey and Amy Poehler (late to the party).

How ironic, then, that Planned Parenthood should call my cell phone (also my only phone) 15 minutes into the film? The woman on the other end (phone nunber blocked) self-identified as a PP volunteer, at which point I was belligerent. "Don't you know we have a law prohibiting phone solicitation? WHY ARE YOU CALLING ME?"

"This is about politics, not asking for money," she answered. "WHY ARE YOU SO ANGRY?"

Then I really was angry.

I explained that I don't support her organization's agenda, don't appreciate phone calls from strangers to discuss that agenda and vowed I would follow thru with a call to Betty Cockrum Wednesday....she's the CEO of Planned Parenthood of Indiana. A nice person with whom to have coffee but a pain in the ass when it comes to the agenda thing.

A quick check of the PP website shows the hidden scenario: fear and loathing in Indiana, where those Horrible Republicans, emboldened by Gov. Mike Pence, have introduced such restrictive legislative measures in the Legislature as a requirement to provide "written materials" to women seeking abortions, a measure setting forth health and safety standards for abortion clinics, and a bill to prohibit abortion when it's sought for sex selection or genetic abnormality, such as sex selection. Here's the link:

New York Times op-ed columnist Ross Douthat has done a good job in past writing exposing some of the mythology and fog regarding abortion, especially that promoted in the MSM, where it's just assumed everyone is "pro-choice" and blindly sympathetic. Most Americans, however, are common senseical: we don't want to go back to the days when abortion was illegal, yet we resent the way the Supreme Court thrust the decision down our throats (or on to fetuses). We want abortion scrutinized, regulated, and minimalized. Very few are willing to go to the mat for abortion anymore; it's morally repugnant.

Enter PP, which obviously prefers to bother Hoosiers with intrusive phone calls in the evening. Maybe that plant in the paper isn't working just yet? Well, give it time...

Comments

Michael [unverified] said:

That's why I got voicemail.

2013-01-29 07:56:11

Duke [unverified] said:

I rarely answer my wired phone anymore. I don't even know why I have it. 90% of the calls are from someone I don't know wanting something, like the lady who assures me that there is no problem with my credit, but...........Even worse are the calls from some robo-center in which the call center dumps me because no one is available to acknowledge that I picked up the phone. The worst part of our culture is suffocating the better part. Being on the no-call list gives you no protection from overseas shysters or those locals who know how to mask their phone numbers.

2013-01-29 11:03:08

Duke [unverified] said:

I rarely answer my wired phone anymore. I don't even know why I have it. 90% of the calls are from someone I don't know wanting something, like the lady who assures me that there is no problem with my credit, but...........Even worse are the calls from some robo-center in which the call center dumps me because no one is available to acknowledge that I picked up the phone. The worst part of our culture is suffocating the better part. Being on the no-call list gives you no protection from overseas shysters or those locals who know how to mask their phone numbers.

2013-01-29 11:03:12

Ms. Cynical [unverified] said:

Why, Ruth, did you answer a call for which the number was blocked?

2013-01-29 16:15:16

Tom Greenacres [unverified] said:

I am a fierce apponent of "personhood" and religion's objection to birth control. And without an answer for what society would be doing with 50 million more unwanted children (we aren't doing much of a job of taking care of the abused, neglected, hungry kids we already have), I believe abortion must remain an option. (I also am a fierce opponent of old white men being in charge of making decisions about a woman's reproduction rights, whether they wear neckties, robes or surplices.)